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The blue chekists have a chronic problem with understanding federalism https://twitter.com/_waleedshahid/status/1045732297713078272
In a geographically expansive polity, in which power is divided federally and apportioned in one critical chamber based on state/province not population, you can (fruitlessly) run up majorities in a few cities or you can expand the appeal of your party to those in more places.
In a Roman, Byzantine, or Feudal system, no one claiming the right or power to rule the republican or imperial polity could merely rule a capital but had to have the confidence of the provinces. A simple popular vote for governmental office cannot hold together a dispersed polity
Not just the American republic but Australia & Canada, as constitutional monarchies, adopted federal principles, often at odds with democracy, to ensure the representation of the broad swathes of the nation-state outside the largest cities. A very wise nod to historic practices.
- US has an Electoral College & 2 senators for each State
- Australia has equal senatorial representation among the States plus a guarantee in s24 that the original states will not have less than 5 House seats, cf Tasmania
- Canada's Senate is not elected & has regional seats!
- Australia has equal senatorial representation among the States plus a guarantee in s24 that the original states will not have less than 5 House seats, cf Tasmania
- Canada's Senate is not elected & has regional seats!
"We now turn to the seven hundred years of Roman federalism, plus the thousand years of federalism practiced by Byzantines and the Holy Roman Empire...and their contempt for Greek democratic forms...."
"There was a dream that was (several varieties of) Rome"
"There was a dream that was (several varieties of) Rome"
Apropos of Blue Chekists going mad online re US electoral college & Senate https://twitter.com/GrayConnolly/status/1049213219129028608
As per usual @JamesHasson20 hits the bullseye
https://twitter.com/JamesHasson20/status/1049490503841079297
https://twitter.com/JamesHasson20/status/1049490503841079297
My sincere congratulations to whoever wins the House Popular Vote in tomorrow's US elections albeit I am not sure it is worth rioting over tbqh
https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1059553661586567168
https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1059553661586567168
I forget how lava-like some of 2018's takes on the "popular vote" are https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/1048313471002189824
The whole point of a Federal system is that there is no national popular vote.
Legitimacy comes only from winning support in the federating territories. https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1059652239403466753
Legitimacy comes only from winning support in the federating territories. https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1059652239403466753
Anyone advocating a national popular vote for a territorially large and disparate polity is advocating a system designed to allow the urban to overawe the rural and for the latter to violently rebel in due course
For large geographic states - eg the US, Canada, Australia etc - the Federal system is not an alternative to democracy but an alternative to an inevitable fragmentation & esp provincial rebellions against the city. When the capital seeks to rule all, the regions rebel and fight
Again, my congratulations to whoever wins the "national popular vote" https://twitter.com/PoliticsWolf/status/1055498916236611585
The Blue Chekists award themselves the "popular vote"
https://twitter.com/evanchill/status/1060036810020143104
https://twitter.com/evanchill/status/1060036810020143104
Whole point of Federalism is there is no "national popular-vote margin" https://twitter.com/SamWangPhD/status/1060005925233270784
Federalism also means there is no "House popular vote" https://twitter.com/voxdotcom/status/1060098282754576385
Same people online who, daily, ascribe authoritarian motives to Trump - who was elected by the US Constitution's electoral college - now openly say they want to destroy the US' Federal system and, esp, the US Senate.
It is Kafka but for constitutionalism
It is Kafka but for constitutionalism
Blue Chekists love the idea of a "popular vote" as a political Newspeak https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1060217622225022976
Blue Chekists wanting Athens but will get Sparta... https://twitter.com/KenDilanianNBC/status/1060141055855738881
Looks like the Borg destroyed Mr Sulu's knowledge of Federalism https://twitter.com/GeorgeTakei/status/1060033846127878145
Provoked now by years of just abysmally bad Blue Chekist takes on constitutions, federalism, and 'the popular vote', I wrote this on the case for Constitutional Federalism - and why direct democracy is dangerous. Enjoy. https://twitter.com/GrayConnolly/status/1060703133590933504
Historic tendency of urban condescension towards the 'rubes' (who feed them) is why Constitutional Federalism works...and also averts provincial rebellions https://twitter.com/MarkMuro1/status/1064277068958060545
Same (broken) people now agonising online about the "popular vote" & attacking federalism are pretty much the same (broken) people who, after Nov 2016, were trying to lobby electoral college members to break their pledged votes for Trump and become faithless electors.
NY Times editorial board member has no idea, at all, what Constitutional Federalism is about....the Blue Chekists have a knowledge of basic civics that is shockingly deficient. Elites this dumb are dangerous
Just one guy's view but one argument against is the Art IV guarantee by the US to each State of a republican (ie not democratic) government & a buttress for a federal Electoral College that makes any 'national popular vote' 'pact' unconstitutional. https://twitter.com/EricHolder/status/1100285733619802112
Terrible idea but cannot see how pop vote survives given US via Art IV guarantees each State a republican (ie not democratic) government & the federal Electoral College's design/existence makes any 'national popular vote' 'pact' unconstitutional. Bizarro https://twitter.com/EricHolder/status/1107105839754682369
NB: when the United States was constituted as a federal republic, it was precisely this sort of unitary democracy that Madison and Hamilton were trying to avoid. https://twitter.com/SenGillibrand/status/1112855676974501894
When constitutional federalism goes bad.... https://twitter.com/GrayConnolly/status/1108553877803040768
The whole point of Anglophone constitutional federalism is the territorial constitution blunts the raw urban majoritianism because holding the realm together is much more important than any transitory democracy. https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1124844646537015296
As it is Election Day...
Australia has a territorial and federal constitution: the Federal Parliament is 151 House seats & 76 Senate seats each determined by each seat's & each state's own voters. There is no 'national popular vote'.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk
#auspol
Australia has a territorial and federal constitution: the Federal Parliament is 151 House seats & 76 Senate seats each determined by each seat's & each state's own voters. There is no 'national popular vote'.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk
#auspol
The Australian system of Monarchical Constitutional Federalism working today as it has continuously done since the 1st of January, 1901.
Another entry in American liberalism's sordid chronology of not understanding Constitutional Federalism & esp how the American federal republic works https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1144399698838589441
Justin Trudeau has lost the Canadian popular vote while cobbling together a parliamentary majority, so presume the Blue Chekist media will now be writing think-pieces on how Trudeau is illegitimate & the Westminster system needs to be abolished? Whither?
Adding my latest to my long running "In defence of Constitutional Federalism" thread: https://twitter.com/GrayConnolly/status/1208270697526702080
Must say the liberal American putsch to change the United States to the 'United People' seems both doomed to failure and another example of the widespread ignorance of federal electoral systems and why they exist https://twitter.com/SenGillibrand/status/1219417242200346624
Federalism: the national government is in charge of protecting borders & regulating immigration. The component states & esp the cities within cannot purport to defy the national government & its law enforcement & the AG is duty-bound to punish those who do https://apnews.com/f2a328bfa091de9f59b34deee463e2fc
The enormous & densely packed population of viral-load shedding New York City is precisely why large & thus necessarily federal countries do not have a ânational popular voteâ - because federalism & electoral colleges are a needed bulwark against toxic de Blasio era demagoguery
This was and is, literally, the intent of an Australian Federation and it working as designed by Constitution .... another entry in my unending 'constitutional federalism' thread necessitated by the appalling civics knowledge of our Blue Chekists here https://twitter.com/AusOpinion/status/1286092586084515840
Honestly, between the wilful idiocies of the media coverage of #PalaceLetters in respect of the Australian Crown & now the idiotic surprise that national Cabinet runs on 'constitutional federalism', less stoic observers could be forgiven for any despair....
